The Daily Blog No One Reads 12/27/11

There must be quite a few things that a hot bath won't cure, but I don't know many of them.

- Sylvia Plath

Born: 27 October 1932

Birthplace: Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts

Died: 11 February 1963 (suicide)

Best Known As: Poet and author of The Bell Jar

Sylvia Plath's haunting and personal poems and her tragic life story have placed her in the pantheon of contemporary American poets. Plath grew up outside Boston, graduated from Smith College and attended Cambridge University in England on a Fulbright Scholarship. In 1956 she married English poet Ted Hughes and, after a brief period teaching at Smith, settled in Devon, England. In 1960 she published her first collection of poems as The Colossus to favorable reviews, but her marriage to Hughes dissolved and Plath moved to London with her two children. Between 1961 and 1963 she wrote dozens of poems, but continued to struggle with a mental illness that had already caused her to attempt suicide twice. In 1962 her play Three Women was performed on BBC, and her semi-autobiographical novel, The Bell Jar, was published under a pseudonym. In February of 1963 Plath gassed herself to death with her kitchen oven. Most of her published works appeared posthumously, including Ariel (1965), Winter Trees (1972) and Johnny Panic and the Bible of Dreams (1979, a collection of short fiction). In 1981 The Collected Poems of Sylvia Plath was published, edited by Hughes; it won a Pulitzer Prize in 1982.

Word of the Day

flagrant \FLAY-grunt\ adjective

:conspicuously offensive; especially : so obviously inconsistent with what is right or proper as to appear to be a flouting of law or morality

The United Nations is investigating what seem to be flagrant violations of human rights by the junta.

"Wade missed the South Carolina game because of … a flagrantpersonal foul at Vanderbilt." — From an article by Bob Holt and Tom Murphy in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, November 20, 2011

In Latin, "flagrare" means "to burn," and "flagrans" means "burning" or "fiery hot" (both literally and figuratively). When it was first used in the 16th century, "flagrant" had the same meaning as "flagrans," but by the 18th century it had acquired its current meaning of "conspicuously bad." Some usage commentators warn against using "flagrant" and "blatant" interchangeably. While both words denote conspicuousness, they are not exact synonyms. "Blatant" is usually used of some person, action, or thing that attracts disapproving attention (e.g., "a blatant grammatical error"). "Flagrant" is used similarly, but usually carries a heavier weight of violated morality (e.g., "flagrant abuse of public office").

Artist of the Day

Machine Head is an American heavy metal band from Oakland, California. Formed on October 12, 1991, the group was founded by Robb Flynn and Adam Duce. There have been 4 member changes since their inception. The current lineup of the band comprises Flynn (vocals, guitar), Duce (bass), ex-Vio-Lence guitarist Phil Demmel (guitar), and Dave McClain (drums). Machine Head is one of the pioneering bands in the New Wave of American Heavy Metal.

Machine Head was formed by member Robb Flynn, previously part of the bands Forbidden and Vio-lence. Flynn felt musically unfulfilled with Vio-lence and requested to start a side project. When his request was denied, he left the band and formed Machine Head in 1992 with Adam Duce, Logan Mader and Tony Constanza. Though the band's first album, Burn My Eyes, was a big success in Europe where it garnered attention on MTV's Headbangers Ball, in America (with HBB taken off the air during the grunge movement) Machine Head would not have success until later albums.

The band nearly disbanded in 2002 after negotiating off its label, Roadrunner Records, when controversy surrounding Machine Head's fourth album Supercharger (released 3 weeks after September 11, 2001) resulted in their songs and their then-current video for the song "Crashing Around You" (which featured burning buildings) being pulled from all media outlets. The band re-signed with Roadrunner soon after and has released three albums since, 2003's Through the Ashes of Empires, 2007's The Blackening (which earned Machine Head its first Grammy Award nomination) and the newest album Unto the Locust was released on September 27, 2011. Machine Head have sold more than 2.4 Million albums worldwide since their album debut in 1994.

This video game was based on a Viking Child called Brian who must enter the Halls of Valhalla and do battle against an evil god Loki and his minions.

The game closely resembled Wonder Boy in Monster Land, as certain elements like collecting hidden gold, upgrading the character's weapons and visiting shops were practically identical, despite the difference in release times. These facts earned Viking Child a reputation for being a clone of Wonder Boy in Monster Land, or, according to Amiga Reviews, an inferior copy.

Programming of the Lead version (Atari ST version) was done by Mark Fisher (a.k.a. Fish, Mr Fish) Original graphics were created by Anthony Rosbottom (a.k.a. Bliz, Blizzard) Music was written by Barry Leitch & Ian Howe

Birthdays in the Community

None today.

If it's your birthday and you aren't listed just tell me on my wall and I will add you to the compendium. Once a month one random lucky person will win a prize.